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Sonnet 116

This is how a 21st century love story goes: Boy meets girl. Two days after that, the boy tells her the 3 “magical” words...“I love you”… hold on, here’s the funny part. She believes him. People nowadays don’t value love. They don’t understand that the word “love” isn’t just a 4 letter word… It’s way beyond that. This is what William Shakespeare is trying to clarify in his Sonnet 116. He wants to expound what love is, & what it isn’t. Using a couple of metaphors, Shakespeare’s main aim is to elucidate the theme that real love is immortal, consistent and certainly not under the mercy of time. Shakespeare starts off sonnet 116 by saying that true love overcomes impediments and doesn’t get affected by the changes in the surrounding. Following that, he compares true love to a Lighthouse. How are the following related? Well, a lighthouse, as well all know, guides ships and at the same time, overcomes all of the storms & tempests, at the same time, love as well guides couples and lost hearts to the right track and is able to overcome all the adversities it might encounter. Furthermore, Shakespeare continues with the metaphors saying “It is the star to every wandering bark”. Here, Shakespeare is comparing love to a star. Long time ago, people used to depend on “stars” as a source of guidance since compasses back then didn’t exist. Yet again, love is being compared to a star that leads the way for lost hearts. Lost hearts, blind eyes, love guides them all. In addition, Shakespeare stresses on the idea that love isn’t for time wasting or entertainment. Love isn’t restricted within a limited time, hence why Shakespeare describes what love is not: it is not susceptible to time. Priceless, consistent, immortal, permanent, this is what true love is all about in the eyes of Shakespeare. He definitely gives a clear description about what love is through the metaphors he included that contributed to his main clarification. Sonnet 116 revolves around a single theme, one...

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...﻿Name: Jessiel C. Pal-ing
Theme/s: ideal love; faithfulness
Introduction:
Name of Poem:
Sonnet116
Name of Poet:
William Shakespeare
Date of Publication:
16th century
Other relevant background info:
This poem is part of Shakespeare's famous collection of poems (a sonnet sequence), consisting of 154 poems. They are about topics such as love and time. The structure of the poems has become the popular format for the sonnet, also called the Shakespearean sonnet.
Form:
Form of Poem:
Shakespearean sonnet
Structure of Poem:
It has 14 lines divided into three stanzas of four lines each and a final couplet. This poem follows the conventional structure and includes the usual 'turn' at the end - a pair of lines (or couplet) that either shifts the mood or meaning of the poem, or asserts some sort of revelation. This sonnet, like all of the other sonnets, and like Shakespeare’s plays, is written in iambic pentameter.
Rhyme Scheme:
The rhyme scheme can be described as a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. This predictability and use of a regular pattern is frequently found in older poetry as writers tended to stick to the restrictions of a set format.
Meaning:
Overall Meaning:
Sonnet116 is about love in its most ideal form. The poet praises the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust...

...William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet116” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All” both attempt to define love, by telling what love is and what it is not. Shakespeare’s sonnet praises love and speaks of love in its most ideal form, while Millay’s poem begins by giving the impression that the speaker feels that love is not all, but during the unfolding of the poem we find the ironic truth that love is all. Shakespeare, on the other hand, depicts love as perfect and necessary from the beginning to the end of his poem. Although these two authors have taken two completely different approaches, both have worked to show the importance of love and to define it. However, Shakespeare is most confident of his definition of love, while Millay seems to be more timid in defining such a powerful word.
Shakespeare makes it known in the first line that he will not come between two people who are in love. He believes that love is strong enough to endure temptation and not waver. If love is altered by another, a “remover” of love, it was not love. Nor, he says, does love change when circumstances change in the third line. He even claims that true love is not tempted: “That looks on the tempest and is never shaken” (6).
Time is love’s most powerful adversary, and this is demonstrated by the capitalization of the word making it a living breathing enemy of love. However powerful Time is, Shakespeare is certain that love is still stronger. “Love’s...

...Shakespeare’s Sonnet116
I chose this poem somewhat at random since I felt that the main point of this assignment was to read a poem and interpret it for ourselves with no influence from others. I think the most disputable, if not confusing, aspect of this poem to me was whom it was addressed to. It sounded to me like it was either self-reflection about what love is, or perhaps more likely advice to another person about love.
I would like to discuss the structure of the poem for just a moment. It is a standard sonnet structure that is extremely common, especially among William Shakespeare’s poems. It consists of three quatrains and a couplet to finish it off. I am not sure if that is the stone-cold definition of a sonnet, but it is nevertheless very common among these types of poems if not. I like the way that quatrains divide up poems to give them more order and separate different rhyme schemes. Excuse me if and when I sound ignorant, but I have never really liked poetry that did not have rhyme schemes. I think rhyming adds a whole other element to poetry, since poems are short, thoughtful, and expressive pieces of literature that, in my opinion, are more beautiful when they have little rhyme schemes in them. I respect the artistic elements of non-rhyming poetry, but I have never enjoyed it nearly as much. I digress. I will now discuss my full interpretation of the poem quatrain by quatrain....

...Shakespeare's Sonnet116
Information about the life of William Shakespeare is often open to doubt. Some even doubt whether he wrote all plays ascribed to him. From the best available sources it seems William Shakespeare was born in Stratford on about April 23rd 1564. His father William was a successful local businessman and his mother Mary was the daughter of a landowner. Relatively prosperous, it is likely the family paid for Williams education, although there is no evidence he attended university.
In 1582 William, aged only 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. Soon after they had their first daughter, Susanna. They had another two children but William’s only son Hamnet died aged only 11.
After his marriage, information about the life of Shakespeare is sketchy but it seems he spent most of his time in London writing and performing in his plays. It seemed he didn’t mind being absent from his family - only returning home during Lent when all theatres were closed. It is generally thought that during the 1590s he wrote the majority of his sonnets. This was a time of prolific writing and his plays developed a good deal of interest and controversy. Due to some well timed investments he was able to secure a firm financial background, leaving time for writing and acting. The best of these investments was buying some real estate near Stratford in 1605, which soon doubled in value.
Some academics known as the “Oxfords”...

...Analysis of sonnet116 by william shakespeare and sonnet 29 bu edna st vincent millay
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Let me not declare any reasons why two
Admit impediments. Love is not love True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds, Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances,
Or bends with the remover to remove: Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; That sees storms but it never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark, Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Within his bending sickle's compass come: Comes within the compass of his sickle.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom. But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If this be error and upon me proved, If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.
Sonnet116 is about love...

...false love. "Kate" is only in the relationship for the "Lord's" wealth and status, and the "Lord" is content with any woman who will satisfy his needs.
In "Sonnet116" Shakespeare attempts to define love. The concept of love that is described in the poem is one very common to the Elizabethan era in which it was written. Love is portrayed in its most romantic and idealised form that was customary in Shakespeare's work. Shakespeare states that love doesn't alter when a loved one changes due to age or illness. Love is timeless and doesn't "alter when it alteration finds". In the second quatrain Shakespeare uses the metaphor of love being a guiding star (the North Star) to lost ships. Love isn't susceptible to a storm, nor is it influenced by time. Love is constant- an "ever-fixed mark", just as a "star" is reliably found in the night sky. Shakespeare is so certain that his definition of love is correct, that he says "if this be error" then love doesn't exist at all.
The language in "Sonnet116" is carefully chosen by Shakespeare to convey his opinion on love and marriage. He uses repeated pairs of words: "love is not love", "alters when it alteration finds" and "remover to remove" are all examples from the first three lines. The pairing of these words composes the idea of a loving couple.
The rhetorical structure of "Sonnet 130" is important to its effect. In the first quatrain, Shakespeare separately...

...Shakespeare – Sonnet116
Analysis and interpretation
Sonnet116 was written by William Shakespeare and published in 1609. William Shakespeare was an English writer and poet, and has written a lot of famous plays, amongst them Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare lived in the Elizabethan era. At that time, the literature and art was in bloom, and his works are clearly characterized by that era both as language and theme goes.
A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines, three quatrains and a couplet, in which the beat follows the iambic pentameter. Sonnet116 is, like the most of Shakespeare’s sonnets, about love. In this sonnet, Shakespeare tries to define love by using comparisons, metaphors and personification. The theme of the sonnet is definitely “true love” because of all his attempts to define it by describing what true love means, and why it is so important to human beings.
The first quatrain is sort of the “introduction” of the sonnet, while the two next quatrains are the body of the sonnet, where he elaborates the two first lines. The couplet in the end is the conclusion, and is used to sum up and close the sonnet. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the last two lines are often about Shakespeare himself in some way. Either by sharing his own opinion on the topic he...

...There has been some dispute whether or not the sonnets are actually written by William Shakespeare,
the strongest argument for this is the phrase "BY.OVR.EVERLIVING.POET.", in which some, the most notable being the entertainment lawyer and author Bertram Fields, argue that this would mean the author would be dead by 1609, while William Shakespeare lived until 1616.[1]
The 154 poems were most likely written over a period of several years and published in the 1609 collection.
These were all in sonnet form and previously unpublished, with the exception of poem number 138 and 144 which had been part of The Passionate Pilgrim, released in 1599.
Sonnets 18-126 tell the story of young man and the poet's admiration and love for him, while 127-152 are addressed to the poet's mistress. In this essay we will look at sonnets 18, 116 and 130 and what they say about love, and see if they share similarities with each other.[2]
Sonnet XVIII (18)
Sonnet 18 speaks of love in its purest form; it is obvious that the author has great admiration for the person the sonnet is addressed to, giving the subject an almost god-like and eternal status.
If we look at the two first lines:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:".
It is clear that he cannot use a summer's day as a comparison,
because the person is better than a...